The ‘Nightmare Enemy’ -story began back in 2008, when two guitarists, long-time friends, and bandmates from the disbanded ‘Gallstone’– Janne Laakso (ex-Mysore) & Juho Pietinen – decided to start a band of their own. They teamed up with Janne Ikonen & Markus Finnholm (bass & drums respectively) and added the legendary Joe North on lead vocals to form the band ‘Nightmare Enemy’.

Markus’ stint behind the drumkit was brief, and in September -09 ‘NE recorded its debut demo ‘The Destroyer’ in studio Vähä-Heikkilä, Turku, as a four piece. The drums on this thrashy 3-song outburst were mainly performed by vocalist North. A little later in the fall -09 the ideal percussive solution, namely drummer Kalle Tuominen (ex-Citadel), was discovered. With this “mark 1 lineup” ‘NE’ played it’s first-ever gig @ Klubi, Turku, on Oct 28th.

The year 2010 saw the band take part in the Turku Bandstand competition and pile up a total of five live performances. Perhaps the most memorable of the shows took place as a support act of the power metal greats ‘Stratovarius’ @ Osmantupa, Eura, July 24th.

During the fall 2010 ‘NE’ spent quality time at Musamuusa Studios, Turku, recording the band’s sophomore demo. A special release gig was rocked Nov 11th @ Klubi, Turku. Stylistically the 5-song EP ‘Renata’ took ‘NE’ a few steps towards more traditional “Iron Maiden’ish” melodic Heavy Metal approach. However, soon after these promising events certain personal relations issues led to the point where the band had to part ways with the vocalist J.N.

During the following three year span ‘NE’ tried out quite a few candidates for the lead vocal duties. The band attended the Turku Bandstand 2012 competition and played a couple of shows with Erik Kraemer (EK & Suonkulkijat) at the helm. Still, the long term solution was yet to be found.

In December 2013 Kalle invited Petteri Urmas – his former bandmate from the late power metal outfit ‘Citadel’ – for an audition behind the mic. One evening of rehearsals led to another, and soon enough Petteri had settled in as the 5th Enemy, thus completing the “mark 2” quintet. Some new melodic touch was injected into the band’s sound with the subtle addition of keyboards. During the year 2014 ‘NE’ mainly focused on writing and arranging new material.

The A.D. 2015 was a year of recording. A studio session at the Noise for Fiction studios, under the supervision of mr. Joona Lukala, began in February, and turned out to be a lengthy one, with appr. 450 studio tracks utilized and a few gallons of coffee consumed. But eventually, in June, the final master tape was forged, and the recording was released end of July.

’Four Years of Silence’ received a heap of positive feedback in various medias both Finland and overseas. The record was also made available in Spotify, Deezer, etc.

In the autumn the new lineup cut it’s teeth with a handful of live performances, notching 2nd place in Prockis band competition in Salo, and making it’s debut gig in Helsinki.

In 2016 the band’s first promo video saw daylight in co-operation with Janne Ketola. Gone (with the wind) was treated with lucious images of smoke, purple haze and byre atmosphere! Go check out the results in Youtube.

A couple of years of a little less intense activities followed, but a new batch of killer tunes started taking form under wraps. Easy listening stuff about apocalypse, warfare, and nuclear annihilation, among other things. In 2018 the band welcomed the addition Mr. Hannu Smolander as the new lead vocalist. Rest assured, the the new sound shall be a thundorous one.